titan_uranus

Sounds like he made the perfect decision. I don't know whether to read Jerri's post as her own view on the fact that Nathan isn't in the team, or an expression of Nathan's true feelings, or just a (kinda) poorly worded expression of the turbulent times they've both been through with him being in Perth in quarantine and then only just making back whilst she was in hospital. But it should be no surprise to anyone that Nathan would be disappointed to not be playing in the Grand Final.

Whilst I don't think it's so simple, I do like the idea that the Round 19 performance understated us and overstated them. I similarly think Round 23 did the same thing to Geelong. I think they thought "look at the first half" and figured, they got 44 points up, just go back to the well and do it again and they'll beat us. When, in reality, they were only on top in Round 23 for 15 minutes and benefited from the most ridiculously one-sided period I've ever seen. I hope the Dogs look back on Round 19 and place too much stock in it. I think the game was far closer than the 20 point margin suggested.

That's silly. Do you really want a situation where we're playing, say, Geelong or Hawthorn, where there is no clash at all, and we end up wearing our clash jumper for no reason at all. Maybe I'm a purist but in my view, the default position should be that in every game (H&A or finals), the away team wears its regular home jumper with white shorts, unless that poses a clash. I don't know if they've ever been deemed a clash? They certainly weren't earlier this year.

No it's not. There's no clash at all between our navy blue jumper and their royal blue jumper. This is 100% the right call. If navy blue and royal blue were a clash, we wouldn't be allowed to wear our current clash jumper, as it wouldn't fix the problem of our more genuine clashes vs Adelaide and Carlton. It would also mean we have no viable jumper to wear in an away game vs the Dogs.

https://www.youtube.com/user/harrypotter6116 Edit: I'm taking someone else's credit here, this was posted elswhere.

We can analyse the forward and backline matches up until the cows come home, but IMO it all pales in comparison to two things: the battle for CPs, clearances and ground ball gets; and goal kicking accuracy. If they dominate us in CPs, clearances and ground ball gets, we'll be in trouble. Conversely, if we take that part of their game away from them (whether we dominate or we just break even), that does heaps for us - their game stems from those areas and if they don't control them, they don't set up as well. Goal kicking accuracy is the other big one. We had our chances in Round 19 but kicked 9.11 to their 13.7. If we get chances early, we have to take them. We've already lost games this year due to poor kicking, I don't want to lose the biggest one of all of our lives.

Whilst I don't know if we'll make a change, I do think we know the following: Daw isn't going to be the sub TMac is going to play defence (unless we have no other options, which means both May and Smith are ruled unfit) Hunt isn't going to play forward

That wont work. Did you see Martin last night? He's cooked. He'll compete in the ruck, but I don't think he is any chance of keeping up with Gawn or Jackson around the ground. It's an area we can, and need to, exploit.

We're better than Port, but the Dogs are better than Brisbane and Geelong. We've been the two best sides all year. It's a fitting final match up. The Dogs will embrace the backs against the wall position - five states in two weeks, bottom half of the 8, quarantine, no training on the oval, etc. The week off will help them more than it will help us. But our best is good enough.

Port and Geelong won't go anywhere until they fix their respective inherent problems. Geelong's gameplan doesn't work in finals. Port cannot deal with pressure.

This game was there for Port if they hadn't been so awful in the first half. Dogs have kicked 3 goals since half time, and look nowhere near as slick as the first half.

No he didn't? 10 disposals, 5 marks. They were rucking him at times, ridiculously.

Stefan Martin's the Dogs' worst player tonight, by a mile. The question is whether he improves with a week off. If this is his effort in the GF, I'll gladly take that match up. Keath will replace Gardiner or Cordy. They'll bring Weightman back but if Martin holds his spot, they'll have to drop Vandermeer or Johannisen.

Why? They're no taller than Geelong was last night.

Port have dominated this quarter for 2.3. This could have been so much more interesting if Port had kicked 5.0. The margin would be 30 points but the feel of the game would be so different.

In Round 11 Naughton kicked 1.1 from 14 disposals and 5 marks. In Round 19 Naughton kicked 2.1 from 9 disposals and 3 marks. Tonight to half time he has kicked 2.1 from 7 disposals from 6 marks. In other words: twice this year, we've curtailed him.

Well at least we get an extra hour to plan for our GF opponent.

Dogs are +26 in contested possessions and +9 in clearances. Hard to beat them with that level of midfield dominance.

That was disgraceful. Three Port defenders watched the ball whilst Johannisen actually went and got it.

They'll destroy Martin and English, too. But we've lost games this year despite dominating the ruck. Gawn and Jackson are part of the broader picture - midfield dominance. We won't beat the Dogs without it.

You just can't have asked for a better crack at it the last two years, though. Top 2 both years, win the QF both years, home prelim both years with opponents who have been all over Australia in the weeks prior. And this year, no injuries at all. They have their entire full list to choose from tonight I believe, except maybe Georgiades.

Dogs are +28 in contested possessions and +10 in clearances. We have to back ourselves in to not be as pathetic as Port in those areas. We know that if you take that part of the game away from the Dogs, they are a very different side. But if you let them dominate those areas, they are arguably unbeatable.

They had 4 wins against the top 8, but two of them were Essendon and GWS, the worst two sides. They beat Sydney and the Dogs in the final round. They were 0-3 against the top 4.

I was about to say Port just need to stem the bleeding, to try to stay in touch and try to over-run the Dogs who played last week and surely will hit a wall before Port. But they can't get their hands on the ball and the Dogs are just embarrassing them at the contest.

Rozee and Butters are so incredibly fumbly under even scant pressure. Port's defence looks amazing against slow play Geelong, but the Dogs bring pace and Aliir can't get into position, exposing Jonas and McKenzie who are just awful one-on-one. Doesn't help that Boak and Wines cannot get their hands on the ball in the middle. Macrae, Libba, Treloar, Smith just doing as they please.